Shear-thinning in concentrated rigid fiber suspensions: Aggregation induced by adhesive interactions

International audienceSynopsis This work is focused on shear thinning behavior of suspensions of rigid non-Brownian fibers dispersed in a Newtonian liquid. The work consists in developing a new theoretical model and conducting accurate experimental measurements. The shear thinning is expected to be caused by adhesive interactions between fibers. Experiments on polyamide (PA) fibers (present work) and carbon nanotube (CNT) suspensions [Khalkhal et al., J. Rheol. 55, 153-175 (2011)] have revealed the following features: (a) the flow curves exhibit a pronounced pseudo-plastic behavior interpreted in terms of the progressive aggregate destruction at the increasing shear rate; (b) the enhancement of the shear thinning with an increasing particle volume fraction is observed and explained by an increase of the strength of effective interactions between particles, as their concentration increases; (c) a weak yield stress of the PA fiber suspensions is detected in a controlled-stress mode and explained by the liquid-solid transition as the concentration of aggregates (constituted by fibers) approaches the close packing limit; (d) the shear thinning is much stronger in CNT suspensions because the adhesive interactions play a more important role between nano-sized CNT particles than between micron-sized PA fibers. A theoretical model considering the coexistence of transient aggregates with free non-aggregated fibers has been developed. The model allows viscosity calculations in terms of the aggregation parameter – the ratio of adhesive to hydrodynamic forces. It captures qualitatively the above-mentioned shear thinning behaviors and fits reasonably well to the experimental data on both PA fiber and CNT suspensions